Staff Achievements Celebrated at Care South Annual Awards Ceremony

Care South, a leading provider of high quality residential and home care services across the South of England, held its annual Stars Awards ceremony last week, to highlight the outstanding achievements of its staff.

The event, which was held in the Balfour Suite at AFC Bournemouth, celebrated the achievements of over 50 staff who have obtained qualifications during the year. The ceremony then went on to announce the winners of Care South’s annual Stars Awards. The awards, now in their fifth year, recognise and reward good practice, commitment and dedication in care provision. Staff are nominated by their colleagues and those they care for.

This year’s Stars Awards included twelve individual awards and four awards for homes. These were presented by members of the Care South Executive Team, and Chairman, Felicity Irwin, along with Danny Crates, a Paralympic athlete who was the guest speaker at the event.

The winners included Emma Cotton, Deputy Home Manager at Queensmead, Christchurch, who won the ‘Manager of the Year’ award, Yolanda Bangura who won Home Carer of the Year and Corinne Topps, Matron at Fremington Manor who took home the prestigious Chairman’s Award for Outstanding Individual. Best Care Newcomer (residential) went to Joe Heath, a Care Assistant at Mount Pleasant care home in Weymouth and Jayne Renyard from Bournemouth Home Care received Best Care Newcomer (home care).

Elizabeth House in Parkstone, Poole was the winner of the Pride in our Home award, while Best Activities Programme went to the team at Maiden Castle House in Dorchester. Kenwith Castle’s Martin Gayette was named Chef of the Year.

Susan Willoughby, Chief Executive of Care South, said: “The nominations for this year’s Stars Awards were once again extremely strong. The Awards are a great way for us to acknowledge the achievements of our staff and say thank you for their dedication to providing exceptional care for residents across our homes and home care services.

Our winners demonstrate the high quality care that we are so proud of at Care South and which makes a huge difference to the wellbeing of those who receive our care. The care and commitment show by our winners embody the Care South HEART Values of Honesty, Excellence, Approach, Respect, and Teamwork.”

Care South is a leading provider of high quality residential and home care services across the South of England. It is committed to ensuring that staff have the support and training they need to develop in their roles and delivers high quality training through its own in-house training centre. External qualifications are sponsored by Care South.

The range of qualifications achieved by staff this year include Diplomas in Health & Social Care, Hospitality & Catering and Leadership for Health and Social Care, as well as NVQs in Cleaning and Support Services, and Business and Administration.